Three years ago I wrote “(Canada’s Remembrance Day 2005)” in which I mentioned Canadian military forces serving in Vietnam during the Vietnam War era and the Nobel Peace Prize they were awarded for their service. I never realized the rancor that revelation would come to garner. It began when I was called a LIAR by a Canadian commenter to my own blog:

“The Canadian Armed Forces won a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in Vietnam.” What year was that? I used Google to save myself from Liberal bias, and discovered that this was a total blatant lie. (October 12, 2006)

To this day I am still being called a “LIAR” for writing facts that I found from my own research.

Political Forum Commenter: “but here is a link to the list of nobel peace prize winners. So far I do not see the Canadians on the list which leads me to believe that this blogger is a liar. They could have only made that up so if they made that up God knows what else.Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize“

Apparently, for Canadians, the truth hurts. For Canada’s military to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for its war efforts is so discomforting to many Canadians that they refuse to believe the facts, and instead, label innocent researchers, such as myself, as LIARS! In 2005, Kerfuffles wrote in “Canada’s Remembrance Day 2005:”

In 1973, the International Commission of Control and Supervision Vietnam (ICCS) was responsible for securing the armistice that lasted two years from 1973 to 1975, known as Operation Gallant. Canada, a member of the commission, contributed Canadian Forces whose role was to monitor the cease-fire in South Vietnam, according to the Paris Peace Conference, and to arrange the release and exchange of more than 32,000 prisoners of war. **The Canadian Armed Forces won a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in Vietnam.

**The Nobel Peace Prize referenced was awarded in 1988, when United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces were awarded THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE for all peace-keeping duties up to December 1988.

In 1988, the Nobel Committee recognized the good work that UN Peacekeepers had accomplished by awarding them the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize was awarded for United Nations-service/Korea service up until 10 December 1988, when the Nobel Peace Prize Award was granted. Therefore, these UN Peacekeepers included the Canadian peacekeeping troops of Operation Gallant, 1973, the military operation associated with the International Commission of Control and Supervision(ICCS) Vietnam whose role it was to monitor the cease-fire in South Vietnam as per the Paris Peace Accords.

Even though it offends the “peace-loving” sensitivities of many Canadians, I stand by my statement: “The Canadian Armed Forces won a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in Vietnam.” My information came from Canada’s own Canadian Veterans Affairs and Canada’s own Canadian Parliament.

Canadian Parliament, 12 March 1997
Mr. Jack Frazer: I think you will all have received a letter from the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association. In it, in the fourth paragraph, they point out that Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said in 1988, when announcing the award:

This Nobel Peace Prize is to be shared by every member of the UN Peacekeeping Force since its inception. That meant that Nobel Peace Prize was shared equally amongst the people who qualified for it at that time.

The Government of Canada has built a peacekeeping monument here in Ottawa, but there is no way for any individual, regardless of what medals he is wearing, to indicate he or she was a valid recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize when it was given to the then peacekeepers. That is what the people in the Peacekeeping Veterans Association are keen to have: recognition that they were part of the peacekeepers who won that recognition for Canada. It could be said that others since that time have done basically the same thing, but the truth is, of course, that the Nobel Peace Prize has not been awarded since 1988, so the people before that time do qualify, the ones post that time do not qualify.

My question for Canadians is why do you diminish the sacrifice and service of your own country’s military forces just because they happened to do their peacekeeping service in Vietnam?

That was the message from Canada at the start of the Iraq War as Canada welcomed with open arms deserters from the United States military forces. Because Canada euphemistically labeled them as “War Resisters” a number of misguided U.S. soldiers took the bait. One of those DESERTERS turned “War Resister” was National Guard Sergeant Corey Glass.

So how fares War Resister Sergeant Glass in his newly adopted homeland? Well … Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board has just denied Glass’s application for refugee status and the Canadian Border Services Agency has issued him a June 12 deportation order to a country, the U.S. of A., where he is considered, not a “war resister,” but a genuine honest-to-god wartime deserter.

Canada to Deport U.S. Deserter
Sergeant Glass, of Fairmont, Indiana, says he attempted to walk away from the U.S. Army but was told that would be desertion, which was punishable by death. Therefore, he welcomed Canada’s most gracious invitation, as anyplace would be better than facing a firing squad. But now the Sergeant DESERTER is on his way back to the land, people and messmates that he deserted a few short years ago.

Now how fair is that Canada? To create a national folk hero out of an invited refugee because he spit in the eye of the United States military, and then to turn around and send that “invited refugee hero” back to his native land to face those same military mad dogs and wild wolves seems a bit inhumane, don’t you think, Canada? Sergeant Glass should take his case to the United Nations, as this is surely an international violation of human rights by Canada. If you are an American deserter or “war resister” BEWARE of Canada’s Open Arms. You cannot be guaranteed that you will receive that glorious welcome that awaited the Vietnam War deserters and draft dodgers of another era.

“I don’t think it is fair that I should be returned to the United States to face unjust punishment for doing what I felt morally obligated to do. I appeal to the Canadian people and the Canadian government to honor their tradition of respect for human rights and support my decision not to participate in this unjust war.” (Corey Glass Begs Canada to Rescind Deportation Order)

Of the more than 58,000 names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., 103 of them are of “known” Canadians who served with United States forces. Although America has honored those fallen Canadians who did not return from the Vietnam war, their own native country never officially did so. The approximately 40,000 Canadian youths who volunteered to fight for freedom for others and against tyranny during the Vietnam era have never been acknowledged by Canada. Those who gave their lives in service to others have no official war memorial from Canada.

Because of this, a small group of Americans in Michigan designed, built, and donated the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Canadian soil, in Windsor, Ontario. It was a long, hard fought struggle that began in 1986, after Vietnam veterans Ric Gidner and Ed Johnson first discovered the untold story of the Canadian Vietnam veterans. They joined with American veteran Chris Reynolds and eventually covenanted with themselves and the unsung Canadian Vietnam veterans: “As Long As We Live, You Will Live. As Long As We Live, You Will Be Remembered. As Long As We Live, You Will Be Loved“.

The three American veterans persevered and began planning fruition of the memorial, paying all expenses by mortgaging their homes, cashing their retirement funds and maxing out their credit cards. However, they never overcame the resistance of the government of Canada and were never permitted to build the Canadian veterans’ memorial under auspices of the Canadian government. It was the town of Windsor in Ontario that welcomed the memory of the fallen Canadian Vietnam soldiers, giving the memorial a home place on Canadian soil in 1994.

Unbelievably, in 1998, vandals struck the veterans’ memorial, severely damaging it, while leaving intact all other artwork in the Windsor park. It took one year and many thousands of dollars to restore the memorial and make security modifications to prevent further malicious destruction. (NOTE: By 2008, vandalism of war memorials has become commonplace, even in the U.S. – See video of New Haven, Connecticut.)

Recently, I was saddened to read of more disquieting news relating to the memorial and the Canadian Vietnam veterans. An Internet essay entitled “With Equal Pride of Place,” tells of irreconcilable breaches between two Canadian Vietnam veterans organizations. It is quite sad that the bitterness and resentments that Canadians harbored against their fellow countrymen who helped the U.S. fight Communism so long ago, seems to have now infected the Vietnam veterans groups themselves. From what I am able to understand from the aforementioned writings, “The North Wall, Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial” has vehemently denied any association or affiliation with “The Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial Association, Windsor, ON,” accusing the latter group of not abiding by the original mandate of the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

According to the “With Equal Pride of Place” essay, many Canadian Vietnam veterans are complaining that the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial, created with such great sacrifice by the three Americans, “ … has turned into something that is much less honourable:” an “ego trip” for many of the Vietnam Veterans and their associates in Windsor, Ontario. The Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial Association of Windsor, which apparently has sole responsibly for The North Wall, has been accused of “a misrepresentation of lineage, Orders of Battle, and the service of all,” including “Canadian Peacekeepers who fell In Harm’s Way during the years 1962-1973,” … whatever all that means.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” ~~John 15:13

It surely means sadness for all of the aging Vietnam Veterans who live in Canada. I hope that this ugliness is not true, but knowing how difficult it has been for Canada and Canadians to face their Vietnam legacy, I suspect that it is. How fortunate that so many of Canada’s veterans of the Vietnam War never returned to their native land, choosing to live out their lives in the United States, where exists for all of us – The Wall, – lovingly and respectfully maintained by the government of the United States of America.

“I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” –Isaiah 6:8

(The image close-up from an original copyright by George Mock, gmockrcpilot.)

Just another one of those endless comments entered here about our peaceable northern neighbor: “Canada had the good sense to stay out of the Vietnam war.” God bless Canuckistan and please, God, save the world from any more of her peacekeeping efforts!

Oh Yes – that is what Canadians believe, that they had the “Good $en$e” to stay out of the Vietnam War. However, … history tells the story differently. Although Canada didn’t send Canadian fighting forces – Canada sent a lot of other things – like war materiel that didn’t go directly to Vietnam, lest Canada’s ruse be discovered. In fact, Canada was so busy manufacturing war materiel for the American forces in Vietnam that the entire country was booming like a well-oiled machine. And the Canadian government had the “good $en$e” to not tell its citizens just why the country was basking in economic good fortune, with unemployment below 4%, instead letting them believe that the manna falling from the heavens was their reward for being good little peacekeepers.

Canada’s “good $en$e” to stay out of the Vietnam War brought them record sales of iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, nickel, asbestos, and oil to the United States, not to mention the warplane components and arms sales. Although fighting the scourge of communism in Vietnam was offensive to Canadian sensibilities, American “blood money” was not. In June 1968, the new Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, officially declared that there was absolutely no immorality involved in selling arms to the United States during the war in Vietnam, any more than it was “to sell them nickel and asbestos and airplane components.”

During the Vietnam era, Canadians were too busy protesting the US involvement in Vietnam to make any efforts to discover their own country’s super secret role in the production and testing of Agent Orange, a weapon that would harm thousands of innocents. The government and manufacturers were claiming that they were shipping an everyday common herbicide that Canadians used to kill weeds in home gardens, under power lines and along railroad tracks. Even though it would wipe out entire jungles in Vietnam, Canadians were told that it was perfectly safe for people, and never, ever did the name of the herbicide, “Agent Orange” pass from their lips.

Oh yeah – Canadians had the “good $en$e to stay out of Vietnam” by selling the Agent Orange to the US army, which at the time was involved in Vietnam. Since it was American planes that sprayed the Agent Orange, wiping out thousands upon thousands of acres of trees and crops in Vietnam, Canadians could continue to live free and guiltless. The fact that Agent Orange was more than a harmless herbicide, that it contained poisonous dioxins, was an American failing, and no fault nor moral problem for the Canadian manufacturers, … whose government leaders had had the “good $en$e” to financially profit from the Vietnam War, instead of fighting in it.

And if you don’t believe Kerfuffles, listen to voices from history describing “Canada’s War Profiteering” at Canada’s own CBC (The CBC Digital Archives Website): Supplying the War Machine: “The Uniroyal plant in Elmira, Ont., was one of seven suppliers producing Agent Orange for the U.S. military.” Or you can continue to believe the statement of the Canadian government’s report to parliament in 1970: “no research carried out by the Department of National Defence has affected the use of chemicals in Vietnam.”

When I mentioned at this blog that I was going to write about Canada’s role with Agent Orange and why all those Vietnam refugees taken in by Canada, were forced to leave their native land, one Canadian commenter replied: “Yeah we know: guns don’t kill people, people kill people, but all those Vietnamese who had Agent Orange dropped on them by the Americans were killed by Canada! Hilarious!”(Comment)

There has been a long, ongoing quest within the community of Canadian Vietnam veterans to have the deaths of their comrades-in-arms formally remembered by the Canadian government on occasions such as Canada’s Remembrance Day. This quest continues.

On Canada’s Remembrance Day of 2005, the Canadian government had absolutely no sentiments of gratitude for the 20,000 or so fellow Canadians who served, nor for the more than 100 young Canucks who died, fighting for freedom and against communism during the Vietnam War.

Flowery words were spoken about brave soldiers who fought and died in World War I and World War II and the Korean War, but there were no words spoken about the long, bloody Cold War conflict known as the Vietnam War. Ambassadors from many nations, including former enemy nations, were invited to lay wreaths in commemoration of the sacrifices made by those who died in Canada’s 20th century wars, including Americans who chose to fight in the uniform of a foreign country, Canada. They, along with Canadian soldiers, were honored on Canada’s Remembrance Day. However, Canada refused to honor and respect the thousands of its own citizens who crossed the border to don the military uniform of the United States of America and fight against the world-wide scourge of communism during the Cold War.

However, when one visits the Veterans Affairs Canada website, there is this explanation of “Canada’s Day of Remembrance”:

Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a silent moment of remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace. We honour those who fought for Canada in the First World War (1914-1918), the Second World War (1939-1945), and the Korean War (1950-1953), as well as those who have served since then. More than 1,500,000 Canadians have served our country in this way, and more than 100,000 have died. They gave their lives and their futures so that we may live in peace.

The following is from an essay by Earl McRae that appeared in “The Ottawa Sun” of 11 November 2005:

There’ll be words spoken in the cold November air about our brave soldiers who fought and died in World War I and World War II and the Korean War, but there’ll be no words spoken about the long and terrible and bloody conflict known as the Vietnam War. There’ll be invited ambassadors with wreaths for the laying from countries that are our military allies, and from countries that were once our military enemies. There’ll be invited military personnel from countries that are our allies, and from countries that were once our enemies.

It will not be mentioned that among those whose sacrifice is being commemorated, who fought and who died in Canada’s 20th century wars, were Americans; Americans who chose to fight in the uniform of another country, our country. They, too, are being honoured this morning by Canada, but Canada is not honouring, and has not respected, the thousands of young Canadians who crossed the border to sign up for the Vietnam War wearing the uniform of the United States of America.

103 Canucks died in ‘Nam

It will not be mentioned that on the memorial in Washington, D.C., The Wall, with the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, are the names of the 103 Canadians also killed.

It will not be mentioned that Canada, neutral in the Vietnam War, permitted some 30,000 American draft dodgers into the country as landed immigrants, along with numerous military deserters.

It will not be mentioned that Canada, the Canada who said Canadians signing with U.S. forces for Vietnam was a violation of Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act of 1937 disallowing Canadians to serve in the military of a country at war with a nation Canada has no quarrel with, is the same and hypocritical Canada whose economy profited from the war by the sale to the American military between 1968 and 1973 of $2.7 billion worth of war materiel from guns to grenades to aircraft engines to military vehicles to boots to berets to napalm.

It will not be mentioned that Canada, who wouldn’t send troops, Canada, who opposed Canadians joining the U.S. military to fight, is the Canada whose delegates to the various peace commissions willingly undertook spy work for the CIA, helped the Americans to secretly bring more troops and arms into South Vietnam, helped the U.S. keep the chemical defoliant program from the public, permitted the U.S. military to test Agent Orange destined for Vietnam at Camp Gagetown, N.B., permitted U.S. bombers to practise their carpet-bombing runs near Suffield, Alta., and North Battleford, Sask.

The Canadian Vietnam Veterans Association, with branches across Canada, has not been invited to the Remembrance Day service this morning. If the association, or any individual Canadian Vietnam vets, wish to use the War Memorial for wreath laying to honour their Canadian comrades, along with our soldiers in all the wars, they will have to do so detached from the official ceremony and — as they have in the past — when eyes are looking the other way.

Along the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario, there is a small, privately funded monument to those Canadians killed in the Vietnam War, The North Wall. When surviving Canadian veterans returned home to Canada from the battlefields of Asia, they encountered a nation that had changed dramatically into a society that was strongly anti-war, anti-Vietnam veteran and pro draft-dodgers and military deserters. With no veterans groups to assist them, nor any help whatsoever from the Canadian government, many of these Vietnam vets relocated permanently to the United States.

Will Remembrance Day 2006 be any different? We shall see and we shall report it here.

Yes, there was a time, in the long ago past, when Canadians and Americans publicly worked together for the common good. Those actions and days are now a part of the Mysteries of Canada.

Peter C. Lemon was born June 5, 1950, in Toronto, Ontario. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in Tawas City, Michigan and served with distinction in Vietnam. Sergeant Lemon, Company E, 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for his actions of April 1, 1970 in Tay Minh Province. Mr. Lemon now resides in Colorado, USA.

Canada and the United States…What do we have in common?“Canadians know a lot about the US, while Americans (OK, maybe not all of them!) couldn’t find Canada on a map. But for all our difference, there are many things we have in common. One thing we share with the Americans is their Medal of Honor (Honour) recipients. There are 54 “known” Medal of Honor recipients who are or were from Canada.” (Mysteries of Canada)

Last year when I was researching Canada’s role during the Vietnam War and learning about that nation’s refusal to honor at official Remembrance Day ceremonies her own Canadian citizens who served in combat during the Vietnam War, I was shocked to find these enlightening news stories. Fortunately for Canadians, America’s veterans came to the rescue and put a stop to the insanity, once again saving Canada from herself. I made the following post at “Blatherings”, 10 February 2005, and I repeat it here on the eve of Canada’s Remembrance Day 2006.

Canada’s new memorial will honor the ‘courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters.’ Canadians have a quaint definition of courage – burn your draft card, slink across the border and then take a job in Canada’s booming Vietnam economy, manufacturing munitions and Agent Orange to be used in Viet Nam. No wonder they are screaming bloody murder at Ann Coulter for reminding them of their “true” role in Vietnam. I thought this was a hoax, but sadly, it is not.

According to news reports, Canada is planning to build a Canadian Vietnam Draft-dodger Memorial. The dedication of the bronze statue honoring draft-dodgers is planned for July 2006 in Nelson, British Columbia, about 140 miles north of Spokane, Washington.

Draft-dodger memorial to be built in British Columbia
Last Updated Wed, 08 Sep 2004 11:27:18 EDT

The memorial, created by artists in Nelson, B.C., ties into a two-day celebration planned for July 2006 that pays tribute to as many as 125,000 Americans who fled to Canada between 1964 and 1977.

“This will mark the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters and the Canadians who helped them resettle in this country during that tumultuous era,” Isaac Romano, the director of the Our Way Home festival told a news conference in Nelson Tuesday.

The event will honour people who came to Canada and resisted war efforts, from burning their draft cards during the Vietnam War to leaving the army to protest the war in Iraq, Romano said.

Seeking Sanctuary (CBC link no longer operative)

Draft-dodger Memorial Angers VFW
Hey guys, chill out. Canada will go down in history as the only country ever to commemorate the “courageous legacy” of draft-dodgers and deserters. A first!

2005 to date, by Kerfuffles.
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